Tuesday, August 31, 2010

It was impossible to top the score and difficult to surpass the emanating expectations from our week 1 whitewash of the Boston Blitz. Our regular season nemesis, the New Jersey Knockouts, was just the team to bring us back to earth, defeating us 2.5-1.5.

Never lacking in drama, the match went deep into Monday night, as the drawn game on board 2, coupled with an exchange of wins on 1 and 4 left FM Alec Getz battling FM Victor Shen in a complicated and exciting game that frayed nerves (most notably Alex Katz's and mine, prompting League VP Arun Sharma to request that at least one of us play next week!) and was classic USCL.

In the end, Victor Shen continued his dominance of the Knights and scored the winning points for New Jersey.

On board 1, GM Boris Gulko won a smooth game against GM Giorgi Kacheishvili, but nearly let things slip at the end!

Worth a shot in time pressure (Shen down to 2 minutes). White should "sacrifice" the exchange with 36. Qb6 Nd5 as the queenside pawns are soon irresistible. Instead, Getz's bluff works and he has a chance to gain the advantage.

36. Ra1? Nfd7! 37. Ra7 Nc5?!

Shen doesn't ignore a second opportunity and plays the intuitive exchange sacrifice. 37. ..Qf6! was called for and with Shen down to 70 seconds, black would be for choice.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

The Knights kickoff week 2 against the New Jersey Knockouts at 7PM on Monday night. Last year, New Jersey triumphed in both regular season matches but the Knights emerged victorious in the Eastern finals on their way to their first USCL championship.

On board 1, GM Giorgi Kacheishvili makes his return against the incomparable GM Boris Gulko (only Soviet and US champion, winning record against Kasparov, before last week 8-0 in league play). Giorgi's blitz heroics clinched the title last year and he's been an anchor for the team. This is the first-ever game between the two and Gulko is looking to get back in the win column after losing to FM Tom Bartell last week.

GM Alex Lenderman faces IM Dean Ippolito on board 2. Alex had an impressive debut for the Knights last week, defeating GM Larry Christiansen, while Ippolito is playing his first game of the 2010 USCL season for New Jersey. Alex's week 7 victory over Ippolito netted him GOTW in 2008, though Dean held him to a draw in week 2 last year.

FM Alec Getz and NM Alex Ostrovskiy play the super-dangerous Shen brothers (FM Victor and FM Arthur) on boards 3 and 4. Alec and Alex are coming off impressive week 1 victories against Boston. Victor played sparingly in 2009, but made the most of his games, defeating yours truly, All-Star IM Marc Esserman and IM Richard Costigan. Arthur made NM Yaacov Norowitz sweat out his USCL debut before faltering in time pressure.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Time pressure and insane swings were the name of the game on Wednesday night.

The newly minted Manhattan Applesauce got things going against the always dangerous Carolina Cobras with a 2.5-1.5 victory. Due to a last-minute lineup change, Carolina was down a half-hour on two boards, but very nearly pulled off the upset. IM Jonathan Schroer pressed IM Dmitry Schneider on board 1 but could only draw, while NM Craig Jones overcame his time deficit to stun SM Greg Braylovsky on board 3. Manhattan's board 2, IM Eli Vovsha, provided the winning margin with his epic Grunfeld victory over FM Ron Simpson, but the real turning point in the match was on board 4, where Carolina's NM Udayan Bapat was pressing Manhattan's James Black on the white side of an Alapin Sicilian.

Bapat had gotten the better of Black, but in early time pressure (down to 18 minutes), he bashed out 23. Be4?!, missing the more immediate win to be had with 23. Re3! g6 24. Rh3 Kg7 25. Qc1! Nf5 26. Bc5 Bd5 27. Be3 Ne3 28. Qe3 and the threats of Qe3-h6 and c3-c4 should force black to resign.

Bapat was given another chance to end matters on move 28.

Still deep in time pressure, Bapat instantly took on b7, missing the crushing 28. Qf4! - after 28. ..Kg7 29. Rf3 Rf8, White would have a pleasant choice between the prosaic 30. Bf8 or the spectacular 30. Rh3 Rh8 31. Bf8!! (an incredible deflection)forcing mate as black cannot continue to cover both f6/h8.

Bapat unfortunately missed one more chance to end things on move 30 (Rd5!) and then tragedy struck. With Black drumming up kingside counterplay, Bapat looked to force a queen trade.

The New England Nor'easters won their debut match against the Baltimore Kingfishers by a 2.5-1.5 margin, with smooth wins on boards 1 and 2 compensating for a wild loss on board 4.

Baltimore's NM Ian Shoch crazy rook sacrifice (rather forced from a practical standpoint, given his weaknesses on d4 and f4 and the match situation) on move 23 finally paid dividends as New England's FM Christopher Chase sense of danger betrayed him on move 31

Chase had navigated a tricky defense well and only needed 31. ..Rd5! to end matters. Instead, he went for 31. ..Na5 and after 32. Qh3 Kg7 33. Ne3! he was lost.

Everything went the San Francisco Mechanics' wayagainst two-time league champion Dallas Destiny, looking to return to their former glory after missing the playoffs last year. After scoring an easy 2.5/3 on the bottom three boards to clinch the match, board 1 fell into their hands in incredible fashion.

Dallas' IM Puchen Wang had played a very nice game til this point, but spoiled things with 50. ..Ne6?? (50. ..Rd5 maintained the pawn advantage, though white can still fight for a draw) and after 51. Rf5 was forced to resign giving San Francisco's GM Patrick Wolff the full point.

Giving white another chance to draw. Much better was 32. ..Kc6! preventing white from repositioning his Q to the optimal f4 square with tempo.

33. Qf4 Kc6 34. e4??

Krasik's last chance was 34. Rg8!! Qe3 35. Qe3 Ne3 36. Rc8, though white must take the perpetual due to the strength of black's h-pawn.

34. ..Qd6?

34. ..Kb6 would have made life a lot easier

35. ed?

Looks dangerous, but 34. e5! forced black to give back the piece with Ne5. If black was greedy with 34. ..Qe6 35. Re7!! Qe7 36. Qh6 Kb7 37. Rg7 leads to a crazy position where black's passed pawns should be enough to hold off the white queen.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

A new season is upon us. The last time the New York Knights were in action, Giorgi Kacheishvili was conducting the black pieces in an Armageddon blitz game against Miami's Julio Becerra. With the clock well past midnight, Giorgi converted a better position in a Sicilian and brought the 2009 USCL title to New York.

Eight and a half months later, the USCL has three new teams (New England, St. Louis and Los Angeles) and unfortunately lost its Tennessee franchise.

The Knights have undergone some changes, turning over half the roster by adding GM Alex Lenderman, FM Alec Getz and the 3-headed board 4 of NM Alex Ostrovskiy, Justus Williams and Alexander Katz.

We lost Knights veteran and US Chess legend IM Jay Bonin, 2009 Rookie of the Year Yaacov Norowitz (surely the league's most underrated player last year and one of the world's best blitz players), NM Evan Rosenberg (whose stunning performance at the New York International in June netted him an IM norm) and NM Raven Sturt.

As the USCL has abolished the "alternate" roster spots, we also said goodbye to SM Greg Braylovsky (a Knight legend from the earliest days of the USCL who has taken his talents to the Manhattan Applesauce) and SM Igor Sorkin.

To kick-off the season, the Knights have the "home court" against their long-time rivals, the Boston Blitz. The Knights defeated the Blitz last year en route to the championship and lead the series 6.5-5.5.

Board 1 features USCL powerhouse GM Alex Lenderman (11/12 in league play, 2/2 against GMs) against living legend GM Larry Christiansen (3-time US Champion, 20.5/34 in league play). Christiansen's wild game against Giorgi in last year's playoffs proved to be a deciding factor in sending NY to the semifinals.

Board 2 sees noted Boston-killer GM Pascal Charbonneau (6.5/8 all-time against Boston) against SM Denys Shmelov. Pascal recently had a disappointing performance in New England (http://main.uschess.org/content/view/10621/598/) and is sure to want to score some regional revenge.

FM Alec Getz (#4 rated 16-yr old in the US) makes his debut for the Knights on board 3 against Boston veteran NM Vadim Martirosov (who beat your author in last year's quarterfinals in a crazy game). Alec is in the middle of an impressive year, winning the National High School Championship and netting an IM norm with 5.5/9 at the Philadelphia Open a few months ago.

NM Alex Ostrovskiy is playing his first game for the New York Knights against the ever-quotable and dangerous NM Ilya Krasik on board 4. Alex gained an incredible 228 rating points in 11 months (June 2009 - May 2010) to become the #2 rated 14-yr old in the US, trailing only San Francisco's FM Daniel Naroditsky.

Unless I am mistaken, it appears to be the first time that any of these individual matchups has occurred, so look out for some fireworks!